Of course
not, albeit for different reasons. But
in my ongoing research into executive orders and proclamations, I have come
across a second order of this nature (the other was issued by President
Lincoln and reads somewhat differently than this). If you can spare a moment,
I’d welcome your thoughts or reflections on FB or at mhl@illinois.edu. For background,
President Adams was deeply concerned about the possibility of war with France
when he issued Proclamation No. 8. I have highlighted passages of personal interest.
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By the President of the
United States of America
A Proclamation
As the safety and prosperity of nations ultimately and
essentially depend on the protection and the blessing of Almighty God, and
the national acknowledgment of this truth is not only an indispensable duty
which the people owe to Him, but a duty whose natural influence is favorable
to the promotion of that morality and piety without which social happiness
can not exist nor the blessings of a free government be enjoyed; and as this
duty, at all times incumbent, is so especially in seasons of difficulty or of
danger, when existing or threatening calamities, the just judgments of God
against prevalent iniquity, are a loud call to repentance and reformation; and as
the United States of America are at present placed in a hazardous and
afflictive situation by the unfriendly disposition, conduct, and demands of a
foreign power, evinced by repeated refusals to receive our messengers of
reconciliation and peace, by depredation on our commerce, and the infliction
of injuries on very many of our fellow-citizens while engaged in their lawful
business on the seas--under these considerations it has appeared to me that
the duty of imploring the mercy and benediction of Heaven on our country
demands at this time a special attention from its inhabitants.
I have therefore thought fit to recommend, and I do hereby
recommend, that Wednesday, the 9th day of May next, be observed throughout
the United States as a day of solemn humiliation, fasting, and prayer; that
the citizens of these States, abstaining on that day from their customary
worldly occupations, offer their devout addresses to the Father of Mercies agreeably to
those forms or methods which they have severally adopted as the most suitable
and becoming; that all religious congregations do, with the deepest humility,
acknowledge before God the manifold sins and transgressions with which we are
justly chargeable as individuals and as a nation, beseeching Him at the same
time, of His infinite grace, through the Redeemer of the World, freely to
remit all our offenses, and to incline us by His Holy Spirit to that sincere
repentance and reformation which may afford us reason to hope for his
inestimable favor and heavenly benediction; that it be made the
subject of particular and earnest supplication that our country may be
protected from all the dangers which threaten it; that our civil and
religious privileges may be preserved inviolate and perpetuated to the latest
generations; that our public councils and magistrates may be especially
enlightened and directed at this critical period; that the American people
may be united in those bonds of amity and mutual confidence and inspired with
that vigor and fortitude by which they have in times past been so highly
distinguished and by which they have obtained such invaluable advantages; that
the health of the inhabitants of our land may be preserved, and their
agriculture, commerce, fisheries, arts, and manufactures be blessed and
prospered; that the principles of genuine piety and sound morality may
influence the minds and govern the lives of every description of our
citizens, and that the blessings of peace, freedom, and pure religion may be
speedily extended to all the nations of the earth.
And finally, I recommend that on the said day the duties of
humiliation and prayer be accompanied by fervent thanksgiving to the Bestower
of Every Good Gift, not only for His having hitherto protected and preserved
the people of these United States in the independent enjoyment of their
religious and civil freedom, but also for having prospered them in a
wonderful progress of population, and for conferring on them many and great
favors conducive to the happiness and prosperity of a nation.
Given under my hand and the seal of the United States of
America, at Philadelphia, this 23d day of March, A. D. 1798, and of the
Independence of the said States the twenty-second.
JOHN ADAMS.
By the President:
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